Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a thermally actuated circuit breaker for protecting a load, in particular a vehicle power supply, also known as an onboard electrical system, comprising in a switch housing a temperature-dependent switching mechanism, which subject to its temperature establishes an electrically conductive connection between two external terminals positioned on opposite sides of the housing and fed out of the switch housing.
Description of the Background Art
From US 2005/0057336 A1, a thermally actuated circuit breaker for protecting electrical components against excess current, having a switch housing and a temperature-dependent switching mechanism disposed therein, is known, which produces as a function of its temperature an electrically conductive connection between two external terminals leading out of the switch housing, which are fed out on opposite sides of the housing.
The protection of a power supply having vehicle loads supplied by a power supply, especially a passenger car or a commercial vehicle, particularly a truck or a bus, is usually carried out by means of fuses, circuit breakers or relays, which are arranged centrally in a fuse box of an onboard electronics, also designated as a central electrical system, with corresponding slots. This requires the laying or routing of cables or lines from the protected loads, which can be located virtually at any location within the vehicle, to the onboard electronics. Hereinafter, a single-lead or multicore composite of cores coated with an insulating material will be referred to as a cable, which serves to transfer energy, in particular, nominal or load current supplied to the respective load.
The laying of the cable or conductors and the cable/conductive material itself represent not only a cost factor, but also lead to a corresponding increase in vehicle weight. This in turn is undesirable, especially in view of the desired reduction in emissions of such vehicles in respect of optimizing the carbon footprint.
The circuit breaker used to-date to protect the power supply or onboard electrical system and/or for overcurrent protection of loads is inserted in sockets of an onboard electronics or into the vehicle control unit, wherein the sockets serve on the one hand to (mechanically) fix the circuit breakers and on the other hand, to (electrically) contact these to the respective cable. Usually, in the automobile sector, thermally actuated, self-resetting miniature circuit breakers using a bimetal switching mechanism in conjunction with a PTC resistor as the heating element for holding open the switch contacts are used when tripping occurs, such as those known, for example, from DE 20 2009 010 473 U1 and WO 2012/037991 A1.
In order to fix the circuit breakers on the cable or conductor cores, spring contacts are crimped, which in turn are inserted into the socket and lock in place there. The respective circuit breaker contacts these spring contacts by means of its plug-in connections. The socket also serves to electrically insulate this connection and must be separately attached, for example, clipped, into the cable or the cable harness.